Meet The Podcasters: Peter Gianesini, Sinclair Broadcast Group

Meet The Podcasters is a special 9-week series created in partnership with Point to Point Marketing. Our sixth feature is on Director of Network Programming, Podcasts for Sinclair Broadcast Group, Peter Gianesini. Follow along with the series, and revisit former conversations by checking out the entire category.  

Peter Gianesini joined Sinclair Broadcast Group in April of 2024, following a near 26-year career run with ESPN. A proud graduate of Syracuse University, he is considered an audio and video content leader with a history of creating successful franchises in the podcasting space from both an audience and revenue standpoint.

With Sinclair, Peter is using his quarter century expertise from ESPN to recruit, build, and maintain a network of podcasts ranging from sports and news to true crime. Leveraging the talent roster of Sinclair’s 185 owned and operated television station has allowed Gianesini a massive opportunity for a company with wide range and scale to begin building a dominant podcast network serving audiences in the 86 markets Sinclair calls home and beyond.  

In this edition of our ‘Meet The Podcasters’ series, we explore Gianesini’s role with Sinclair, the differences in his day-to-day just a full year into his role, and the excitement of what’s to come in a very unique and growing arm of the Sinclair Broadcasting portfolio. 

Peter Gianesini spoke with Barrett Media from his hotel room on the road in California. 

*Editor’s Note: Answers have been edited for clarity and length.* 

John Mamola: You’re almost a year into your new role with Sinclair Broadcasting. What’s the day to day like for you with Sinclair Broadcasting compared to your day to day when you were working with ESPN? 

Peter Gianesini: For what it’s worth I work remotely dealing with people in many different places in the country and many different markets. What’s the same is no day is like any other day. Every day is completely unique, and what you do on a Wednesday compared to a Thursday might not be the same. 

The biggest thing that’s different for me is the genres of content that I deal with. While sports is still an incredibly big part of my role, one of the things that really excited me in coming here was to get involved in the true crime space. Politics, families, we also have a weather show I’m proud of. To be able to engage some of these different areas was exciting for me. 

The other thing that’s different was in my podcast role with ESPN, video wasn’t a piece of that at the beginning and eventually became a huge piece of it. Actually the primary piece of it. The way we were structured is I was the “audio guy” and someone else was in charge of the video side of the shows. That was sort of the dynamic. 

In this case, if we have a show and we’re producing it for audio platforms and for YouTube and potentially repurposed on television, I’m overseeing the show. I’m responsible for making sure that the show works on all of those platforms. It’s been a wonderful learning opportunity, but just like anything else it’s relationships and building trust with people. 

It’s coaching, feedback, and listening to ideas. Understanding that as we go along, I don’t know everything, and I have a lot to learn as well. That’s been a great experience. 

John Mamola: Sinclair Broadcasting owns and operates a little over 180 television stations in 86 markets. Looking at the podcast roster, specifically to sports category. There are ten sports related podcasts, but I know there are a number of true crime and news podcasts as well. 

I noticed though that the podcasts are utilizing a lot of the talent on the local level working within the walls of the television stations themselves. That’s who is producing that type of podcast content. 

As somebody walking into this role, how do you identify the right talent in the right market, utilizing the talent that are already part of the Sinclair family? 

Peter Gianesini: Some of those shows were already in place and I inherited them. The good news is these are people that know their market better than I ever will.  

Probably the strongest sports show that was in the portfolio when I arrived, and still is the case to this day is in Rochester, New York. The three anchors do a Buffalo Bills show called Buffalo Plus. They’ve got it down. It’s a really good show and it’s information, insight, analysis, personality, and chemistry. I’m not even a Bills fan, I’m a Giants fan, and I don’t miss an episode.  

Even lately with free agency and they picked up Joey Bosa and they re-signed Josh Allen. I found myself wanting to hear what these guys have to say about it as that goes down. They’ve built a Buffalo Plus brand independent of the television station and the call letters. Understanding that, yes, the show might originate from Western New York. Of course, it’s a “local show” because it’s about the Bills, but the audience opportunity is national if not global. 

We’ve tried to replicate that approach.  

In Syracuse, New York, they launched a podcast that you might expect that I was a listener to before I ever got the job with Sinclair. The Orange Zone, which is a podcast about Syracuse University sports. It’s where I went to school and I get up there a lot. It was a great place to start in the new role with a city I’m well acquainted with content. It was the first station I visited after I got the job. 

They also launched a second show covering the New York Mets. The two sports anchors there who were incredibly talented, both grew up passionate Mets fans and it was something that they wanted to do. It also helped that the Mets AAA team is in Syracuse, so they had a through line to the franchise locally as well. It didn’t take long after they started producing that show, you’d look at some of the audience data.  

Sure, they’re getting audience from the Syracuse area, but New York City, like right away, found the show. We were getting a very high percentage of the audience from all the places you’d expect. Brooklyn, Queens, you go into the platforms and look at all the data. 

Then YouTube went crazy with it. 

In October, when the Mets went on their playoff run, they went from doing the show essentially weekly to just about every night. The next thing you know, fan bases of their opponents were in the comments and were following the show. Now this “little Mets podcast out of Syracuse, New York” was building a following in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and all points in between around the world. 

That was my first real insight into podcasting on YouTube’s a whole different ballgame. I kind of knew that. Enough people have written about it, and experts presenting at some of these conferences knew this backwards and forwards. We did a lot of that at ESPN. Of course, YouTube is a big part of what they do. 

To take something that was a local show, and you do it right at the right time in the right place and suddenly it just explodes. I’ve never seen anything like that in the more traditional audio platforms. It’s like, we need to do more of that and we’ll have a lot of happy people in my company. 

John Mamola: Talking about metrics. With different formats of podcasts ranging from sports, to news and true crime. I would imagine that the metrics may differ as far as determining what success is for each of those formats.  

Or is it pretty uniform for goals to hit when it comes to certain metrics for everything altogether? Looking at Sinclair’s sports podcasts, you have one that includes former USC quarterback Matt Leinart. You have Landon Donovan and Tim Howard doing a soccer podcasts. The roster does have some pretty large names doing their own podcasts on the Sinclair network. I would imagine the metrics that you’re aiming to hit with each of the different formats, or even each individual podcast may be a little bit different. 

Peter Gianesini: Then you layer in social where each of these shows are really aggressive. They have their own YouTube channels; they have their own social handles. We don’t have where everything’s rolling up into one central Sinclair podcast YouTube page. These shows are their own entities and their own identities. So we’re looking at audio listens, video views, social engagement, YouTube shorts, all those pieces. There’s an aggregate number. 

It’s not like I’m losing a lot of sleep saying a certain show did a huge number on YouTube, but the number is a lot smaller on the audio side. Something’s wrong. It’s just the nature of how audience evolves, I’ll take them wherever you can get them. 

One of the things I’ve always done, as you’re looking at industry tread trends and talking to colleagues and reading studies that are done. I’m also analyzing my own usage. 

I mentioned how I’m watching this Buffalo Plus show. I’m not even a Bills fan, I’m a Giants fan but I just enjoy the show. The primary way I consume that show is I get on my treadmill, and I use the YouTube app on my television. I’m consuming a podcast on a 55-inch television. So am I listening to a podcast? Am I watching a podcast? Am I watching TV?  

Who cares, I’m just consuming the show. 

Talking with the people at our stations when we’re producing these things, it’s no different that when I was producing Mike and Mike back in the old days. This was new at the time, right? Are you producing a radio show on television, or are you producing a television show on the radio? My answer at the time was we don’t get to decide. If you’re in your living room watching ESPN2, you’re watching a television show. 

If you’re in a car listening on the AM or FM radio station in your town, you’re listening to a radio show. If you download it and listen after the fact, I probably at the time said on your iPod. You’re listening to a podcast. We don’t choose in advance what it is, you just produce the best show you can. Put it as many places as you can for the audience to decide what it is. That’s been the biggest evolution. 

John Mamola: I would imagine it’s a big advantage working for a television company, and have the video set up easily for the talent to use for creation. That’s the one item that I feel makes Sinclair stand out from other podcast networks. 

A lot of the other podcasts platforms are figuring it out how to use YouTube to get it on video. Whereas Sinclair already has that advantage with professional television studios. Everyone’s wearing suits on your podcasts! 

Talk about that advantage and how that also helps you with discovery in the video sphere when the audio sphere works the other way around with a lot of other brands. 

Peter Gianesini: I’m so glad you brought that up because it is a little bit of case by case. They have, in many cases, wonderful infrastructure, resources. High quality cameras and microphones, they’re all good on all that stuff. We’re not really producing a television show. The vibe of a lot of these shows is not meant to be that. 

You mentioned doing shows in suits. I’ve had conversations with some of our talent saying, I wish you wouldn’t do that. Can you also bring a quarter zip to work? I used to say this to talent at ESPN. I want you doing this podcast in a hoodie. Whether you do it literally or figuratively, I don’t want the vibe to be you’re sitting at a desk or on the set.  

In this role, I have some places where they’ll show me what their set looks like. It’s the set they use for the five o’clock news, and I’ll ask what else do you have? Whether it’s the Mets podcast in Syracuse so on and so forth, they have a separate little place with memorabilia on the wall, making it look like a more what your basement might look like where you watch your games. 

It’s a completely different vibe than sitting on the set. 

Sometimes, for practical purposes, we’re catching talent literally right after they get off the air and they’re recording the podcast. So they’re wearing whatever they’re wearing. The idea is the vibe, and the approach is looser and different than producing your traditional newscast, and they know that. It’s just a matter of you’re using different muscles. You’re riding a bike instead of running, so it’s slightly different. 

John Mamola: I’ve discussed this a lot with several people in the podcasting industry. Discussing the size of the podcast industry, and if it’s potentially oversaturated. 

Sinclair already has a highly successful television wing and they’re been aiming to get into podcasting over the last four or five years, I would say. It has to be a massive challenge for a company entering into the space just over the past couple of years. 

Explain how you utilize the television product to promote the podcast wing if it’s that much of a focus for the company? 

Peter Gianesini: If I were starting a podcast company today, sports or otherwise, and they would say to me, here’s the infrastructure we’re going to give you. We’re going to give you a building full of people in over 80 cities around the country who already have studios, already know their market, and already have advertiser relationships.  

You’d be like, well, this is a wonderful place to start. 

While they may not have the background in where to set the ad markers in, and publishing an audio podcast. That part you can teach.  

You tap into these buildings full of incredibly talented individuals. Whether it’s a fastball down the middle and they’re doing a politics show in a state capitol like Albany, New York. OK, that’s what you would expect them to do, and they would do it well. 

They do a Syracuse University show in Syracuse, New York. That’s sort of what you would expect them to do, and they do it well. What’s exciting is when you could tap into the personalities of the people in the building and say, oh, you’re Mets fans? You want to do a Mets show? Great!  

You’ve been in the weather business for a number of years, made great relationships, and can tell a story about how the weather patterns surround the opening week of baseball season? Tell how it impacts the scheduling, and do it in a way that, ‘hey, this is a person I’d like to hang out with and spend time with.’ It’s not all that different than previous roles. 

Some of it is loosen up a little bit in some of the audio platforms. What your presentation on television is not what the consumer’s expecting in the podcast space. There are slight adjustments along the way.  

All these stations already have robust YouTube channels, and a strong website audience that they bring in. It’s certainly not like they were nowhere in the digital space. They were incredibly engaged in the digital space, maybe not as much specifically in the podcast space, but there’s tremendous infrastructure to be able to quickly leverage to take some of our concepts to the next level. 

John Mamola: Let’s discuss the integration of these podcasts with the television networks. You record them in the television studio using the talent from the local market. I would imagine that there’s a focus on trying to get that podcast content on the television channel itself to help promote that podcast and grow it with the viewership that the network already has. 

Peter Gianesini: That’s part of the conversation with each market. When we’re launching a show, you’re talking to the leadership of the station in addition to the talent and say, what are your goals here? 

In Seattle at KOMO, we launched a sports and business podcast together, a sort of business of sports in Seattle. One of their talented news reporters, Chris Daniels, he was the person who broke the story that the Seattle Supersonics were leaving Seattle. He’s been chasing and chronicling the hopeful return of basketball to Seattle. He’s partnered with their sports anchor Niko Tamurian, and they have a really great studio set up. 

They’re producing that show or podcast for YouTube, and it just so happens they also be able to edit it to a perfect 30 minutes so that they can run it on their CW station. 

Some of these markets have more than one television station, so there’s lots of places to put fresh timely local content. Some places it’s a tougher nut to crack, right? Your network affiliation is so strong, and you really don’t have a place to put it. They’re fully comfortable keeping it on digital platforms. 

Other places are running a whole show on television or a segment on television, they do that. Quickly the reverse is true. They’ll take a segment of a television show that’s an interesting concept, a good five minutes on TV and expand on that and make it into a complementary podcast. So we’ve done both. 

We’ve taken a podcast concept and brought it to television, and we’ve taken a television concept and brought it to podcast. 

John Mamola: From a revenue perspective, I would think that also gives you a leg up as well. You have both spaces that you could sell a title sponsorship for each of these individual podcasts on the individual platforms. Also potentially sell into other sponsorships of segments in both spaces. 

Does the availability of having both the video space, on demand, and the television channel, along with the audio piece, help in generating revenue streams for the podcasts? 

Peter Gianesini: Yes, all of that and social. The sponsors are buying the television impressions, audio impressions, YouTube impressions, webpage, and social. You can get to a sizable impression number quickly when you do that. 

You have a good story to tell an advertiser when you can package all those things together. 

John Mamola: You have been in this business for a long time. What is one thing that you wish you knew a little bit earlier in your career about the podcasting space that you know now? 

Peter Gianesini: That’s a good one. 

It’s funny. I waded into the shallow end of the pool when I entered podcasting because I was already in the radio business. The way we were structured at ESPN podcasting was sort of a subset of the radio division. We were able to experiment at the beginning 

I would have gotten more proficient with YouTube much earlier on. You’re also protective of the platform you know, and we see this a ton in radio. 

I remember when I was first working on Mike and Mike. That show was on four radio stations and then it became a hundred or more and then let’s add television to it. The first thing I did, which was the wrong thing, was protective of radio. It was like they’re going to come in and they’re going to ruin this. They’re there’s going to be all these gags on TV and it’s going to ruin the radio show. 

By the way, all the radio people were feeling the same way at all our stations around the country. Of course we saw what happened, it took it to the next level. 

For some reason at a smaller scale, I did that again with podcasts. We have these audio podcasts., well we’re going to add video. Well that’s going to mess it all up now. Now everybody’s got to get dressed, and they’re going to be more worried about the video. 

Of course, it exploded all of it, right? It took it all to the next level. 

So, I wish I learned those things quicker. 

Now I can take a concept at the beginning before we ever do our first demo or come up with a title for a show.  We’d ask how would this idea live in audio? How would it live on YouTube? How would it live on television? How would it live on social? You build it out for all these platforms instead of retrofitting things after the fact. 

I wish I had done known that more quickly. 

I’m happy to be playing catchup now very quickly, leveraging some of these new learnings just about a year into a new role. 

To learn more about Point-To-Point Marketing’s Podcast and Broadcast Audience Development Marketing strategies, contact Tim Bronsil at tim@ptpmarketing.com or 513-702-5072.